My Event Ratings

Overall score		100%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		60%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		100%
Value		100%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: Race of the falling leaves
In full: within 10mins of finishing I received a text from the organisation giving me my chip time, gun time and overall position. Simply amazing and something I've never come across before. Faultless organisation, great start and finish area,oodles and oodles of marshalls all over the route, police prescence, well marked route, well stocked drinks stations, appreciative crowd all around the route. This truly is a great race which is getting better each year. You'd be mad not to do it.
The only negative is you don't get a free t-shirt but I'm nit picking ;-)
Date of review: October 19, 2008

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Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		60%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		80%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: A1 organisation, marathon is a game of two halves
In full: Very well organised on the day, plenty of marshalls, well marked out race start. Gold star to whoever organised the 180+ portaloos - a very important and often overlooked aspect of race day.
The half course was great and really sold Nottingham as a nice place, the second half (marathon course) is a bit soul destroying but I thought they did very good to get a different 13.1miles that wasn't simply another loop of the half course.
Great finish area and kudos the army of volunteers at all points from start to finish - without them the event would be nowhere near as good.
Very good alternative to the big city marathons and well worth the journey.
Date of review: September 14, 2008

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Overall score		60%
Would you do it again?		No
Details:
Scenery		20%
PB potential		80%
Atmosphere		40%
Organisation		40%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Flat course but organisation leaves a bit to be desired
In full: As a race organiser myself I don't like to criticise the efforts of others but the following need attention:
The start was chaotic, no holding pens, no time markers to line up alongside, one marshall trying to control all the runners. Awful bottleneck start which lead to a lot of clipped ankles.
First 4 miles through council estate - where were the marshalls on the junctions? Where were the markers telling car drivers what was going on? They were coming out of junctions not aware of what was going on.
All around the course, police seemed to not know what they were doing and were causing more problems than they were solving.
All the way round you never got the impression that you had priority of even that other traffic users were expecting you to be there. The final mile was chaotic tyring to weave through traffic even with the help of police and trying to get past the Sunday shoppers trying to access Morrissons entrance at 12.9 miles
Either make an effort to shut down roads and make the event a showpiece for the town or run it out on the rural lanes where traffic is quieter.
On the plus side - great route for PB's, well stocked drinks stations. Sponges as well (nice touch), finish in market square was good, efficient finish line marshalls, nice t-shirt
Date of review: August 10, 2008

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Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		80%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		80%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Nice, quiet circuit - well marshalled
In full: PB'ed even in the rain and wind so slightly biased but well run race with good pub near the HQ/start/finish so would be good to bring the family along to cheer you on and then celebrate/commiserate at the bar afterwards. Well run and organised by the promoting club and if the weather had been better the post race atmosphere would have been great. Hill at the end was harsh but you did get to run down it to begin with within the first mile so you knew it was coming.
Date of review: July 6, 2008

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Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		100%
PB potential		80%
Atmosphere		80%
Organisation		60%
Value		60%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: Friendly, accessible race for all standards
In full: This is the 3rd year I've run it and it's great. Running around the golf course is great, especially now they go the other way and have taken out the steep hill (obv. now a steep descent). Nice flat 2nd half and good to see road closures enforced. Simple finishers bag at the end - tshirt, medal, fruit snack bar and bottle of water.
Very well marshalled with cadets and scouts and volunteers.
Would recommend to non-runners who wish to do a 10k definitely.
Course is good for a PB due to lack of serious hills but some parts of the course (swithcback under the bridge) blunt the speed a bit.
Date of review: April 8, 2008

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Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		100%
PB potential		80%
Atmosphere		60%
Organisation		80%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		80%

In short: Great race for first-timers and club runners alike
In full: good course, nice and quiet, gently rolling. Well organised, all the details were ticked and plenty of helpers ensured there were no complaints. Amazing effort by a typical running club.
Date of review: October 8, 2007

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Overall score		80%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		80%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		100%
Organisation		60%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: showcase race for the region
In full: Great to start within sight of the Castle entrance and to run through Warwick past the Castle itself. Fantastic feeling knowing up to 2,000 runners were breathing down your neck! Great to have a solid police prescence on the race leading the runners and making sure cars were stopped. The route was lovely - past the watermill, through the villages of Hill and Leek Wootton and then through the estate to Abbey Fields to finish in the castle grounds. Being in the top 100 i had no problems with queueing for a T-shirt or a medal but then I don't run to get freebies. I'd rather have the organisers put on a brilliant point to point race with the aid of the local police force.
A 'must' for anyone in the Warwickshire region but the course is "rolling" shall we say ;-)
Date of review: June 11, 2007

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Overall score		100%
Would you do it again?		Yes
Details:
Scenery		60%
PB potential		60%
Atmosphere		100%
Organisation		100%
Value		80%
Beginner-friendliness		100%

In short: Amazing Organisation
In full: Brilliant event - did it as my first big event after a few local 5 milers - difference was mind blowing. Thanks to whoever held off the rain for the race - cheers! Shut down the ring road (great) and made all the route pleasurable. Thanks to the cheerleaders who got up to provide us with some eye candy at just over halfway. Good to have a clock at halfway so you could judge your efforts and pace accordingly. Can the organisation make sure the mile markers are put up at least 6ft in the air on a pole please? It's hard to spot 1 marker on the ground when you've got several hundred people around you, much easier if it's higher up.
The memorial park route was tortuous but if that's the price we have to pay for that course so be it. Amazing atmosphere and proves that the Council can really do great things when they have someone who knows what they're doing in charge.
Well done helen kelly and her team
Date of review: October 23, 2006

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